Sports Direct has appointed RSM after four weeks without an auditor following the resignation of Grant Thornton, who had audited the company since 2004
The appointment follows months of wrangling after the Big Four audit firms recused themselves from tendering for the audit, citing issues of conflict preventing them from handling the business. There were also concerns that the government may have to intervene under the Companies Act to ensure Sports Direct had an auditor although this was never necessary.
The audit was worth £1.1m to Grant Thornton for the audit of the accounts for year end April 2019 and had been in place since 2004 and took the company through its IPO in 2007.
RSM UK Group LLP does not handle any FTSE 350 audits for public interest entities, but is internal auditor at Ibstock and Intermediate Capital Group, both FTSE 350 companies. The firm does handle a number of AIM audits.
Jonathan Ericson, head of audit at RSM UK, said ‘RSM is delighted to have won this opportunity. We have a strong, high quality audit practice. Our experience, investment and commitment, together with the scope and scale of our international services, mean we are ideally placed for this important public interest appointment.’
The audit firm is ranked 7th in the Accountancy Daily Top 75 with fee income of £314m with £72m in audit fees reported for year end 2018.
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